MARADI, Niger, August 2, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Muslims and Christians are united in their uphill effort to help millions of people in dire need of food aid in the famine-stricken West African country of Niger.

"We feed everyone without distinctions, religious or others," Abdelkak Azeroual, a coordinator of the Center for Muslims in Africa, told the Associated Press on Tuesday, August 2.

"Ask them," he said, pointing at a group of women sitting on the sand with their children.

"You will certainly find some animists, Catholics. The food here is for everybody."

Only the cook and a handful of women in the courtyard responded to the noon call to prayer.

The Center for Muslims in Africa was founded in 1981 and is run with financial support from the Kuwaiti government.

It has been working in Niger, which is 95 percent Muslim, since 1986, but increased its activities here because of the hunger crisis.

Among the other Islamic groups working in Niger is the Burbank, Calif.-based Islamic Relief organization.

Drought and severe locust invasion last year has left some 3.6 million people in this country of 11.3 million faced with severe food shortages.

Children in Niger, the second-poorest country in the world, are most at risk, with some 800,000 aged under 5 years need to be fed urgently.

Just 150 yards from the Muslim charity, members of a Christian congregation discuss how to stretch funds collected at Sunday services to help the drought-stricken people.

Abdou Laouali, permanent secretary of the 250-member Evangelical Church of the Republic of Niger, told AP Muslims and Christians serve the same cause.

"There is no rivalry between the two communities," he said.

"We are working toward the same objective."

Overwhelmingly Muslim Niger has seen very little Muslim-Christian tension, according to the AP.

Emergency WFP supplies are unloaded at a warehouse in the town of Tahoua in northwestern Niger. (Reuters)

Bishir Ismael Brahim, dispatched from the Center for Muslims in Africa's Kenya offices to respond to the hunger crisis in Niger another, complains that the West misunderstands Islam and is unfairly suspicious of everything Muslims do.

He criticized stereotyped claims that Muslim charities help "terrorists" and spread "fundamentalism".

"I can assure them that a hungry stomach has no ears…So, whatever they can imagine we are telling these people, is falling onto deaf ears."

Asserting the "purely humanitarian" nature of his work, Brahim maintained: "I came to save lives."

The Center for Muslims in Africa is active in 34 African countries, building schools, mosques, health units, water facilities and also caring for orphans.

The group, which has former Kuwaiti ministers among its directors, has passed increased government scrutiny, beefed up since the 9/11 attacks against the US.

Muslim relief groups complain that crackdowns by the US as well as Arab governments have scarred off many Muslims from donating to charity.

In another development, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) is to treble its Niger appeal to 57 million dollars (46.7 million euro), reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The Rome-based emergency response organization is aiming to increase the number of people targeted for food aid from 1.6 million to 2.5 million people it has identified as "in urgent need of food aid".

Overall, the UN body says 3.6 million people are directly affected by food shortages in the West African country.